for example, go books make a big deal about where to extend along the side, or when to play in one corner or another, but the difference between these various moves is usually only a few points.
The difference between similar-appearing various moves may well be one of efficiency--and that translates into sente or control of the game.
A typical technique of human analysis is to consider the shape of a position: If the same moves had been made in a different order, would all of them be necessary or even justifiable? "Good shape" normally gives you a stable, highly defensible position with the minimal number of moves and hence the best chance of keeping-or-recovering sente.
High-handicap games don't look playable if you think of a handicap position as having given the weaker player territory, which the higher-ranked player must take away... What a handicap actually gives is First Move in many places. A higher-ranking opponent doesn't "take away" anything tangible that the weaker player possessed; what he takes, repeatedly, is the initiative. And that's enough to add up to a great many points!
Forrest Curo ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list [email protected] http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
